Bhutan offers electricity

Trade deal likely by May

Bhutan has offered Bangladesh an opportunity of importing surplus electricity from the Himalayan kingdom to feed its power-hungry national grid.
As the Bhutanese ambassador in Dhaka made the offer yesterday, Commerce Minister Faruk Khan said Bangladesh will sign trade agreement with Bhutan within May.
“Bhutan expressed its interest in the trade agreement and decided to sign the deal in April or May,” the minister told reporters after meeting Ambassador Tshering Dorji at his office in the morning.
Stating that there is an ample scope for enhancing trade between the two countries, Faruk Khan said, “We, the two countries, agreed to enhance trade and investment by giving priority to our respective interests.”
The minister observed democratic governments are now operative in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and India where business was used as political arms instead of key to development in previous times.
“We destroyed our market in the region; we should give priority to trade by taking lesson from the past,” he said.
The envoy invited Bangladesh to participate in the next SAARC trade fair in Bhutan.

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